Allan Carr, 62, the Producer Of 'Grease' and 'La Cage'

Published: July 1, 1999

Correction Appended

Allan Carr, the producer behind the popular movie musical ''Grease'' and the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit ''La Cage aux Folles,'' died on Tuesday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 62 and also had a home in Palm Springs, Calif.

The cause was liver cancer, Ronni Chasen, a longtime friend, said.

In a varied career that included stints as a publicist and manager, Mr. Carr was noted for his shrewd timing and keen nose for new talent. He was perhaps just as renowned for his penchant for camp, most notably as the producer of the 1989 Academy Awards telecast. That show's opening number featured a squeaky-voiced Snow White singing ''Proud Mary'' with the actor Rob Lowe, prompting legal action by the Walt Disney Company.

A party-giver par excellence who favored ''large-man caftans'' during the 1970's, Mr.Carr once feted Truman Capote in an abandoned Los Angeles jail.

Reared in Highland Park, Ill., Mr. Carr attended Lake Forest College and entered show business after studying briefly at Northwestern University. His first venture was as one of the creators of the Playboy Penthouse Television series, which helped pave the way for Hugh Hefner's Playboy clubs. He was also responsible for the opening of the Civic Theater in Chicago, where he underwrote ''The World of Carl Sandburg,'' with Bette Davis and Gary Merrill; Tyrone Guthrie's production of ''Mary Stuart,'' starring Eva Le Gallienne, and Tennessee Williams's ''Garden District,'' with Cathleen Nesbitt and Diana Barrymore.

With a string of minor films under his belt, including ''The First Time'' in 1969 with Jacqueline Bisset, ''C.C. and Company'' in 1970 with Ann-Margret and Joe Namath, and ''Survive!,'' the 1976 movie about the survivors of a plane crash in the Andes, Mr. Carr went on to produce ''Grease,'' the 1978 teen-age dance extravaganza starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

True to form, Mr. Carr took a chance on two relative newcomers to the movie industry: Mr. Travolta had yet to appear in ''Saturday Night Live'' and Ms. Newton-John, a singer who ''knocked out'' Mr. Carr when he met her at a party, he said, had appeared only once before the camera, in ''Toomorrow,'' a British flop. ''Grease'' became one of the highest-grossing films in history.

While visiting Paris during the summer of the film's premiere, Mr. Carr accompanied a friend to a play by Jean Poiret called ''La Cage aux Folles.''

''I dreaded going,'' he said afterward. ''I thought it was going to be another boulevard comedy in a language I wouldn't understand. And of course that night it hit me. I had to have the American rights.''

The Broadway version of ''La Cage aux Folles'' (preceded by a hit French film of 1979) was a critical and box-office sensation, sweeping the 1984 Tony Awards with six wins, including best musical. The show, about a homosexual couple, ran at the Palace Theater on Broadway for five years.

In 1995 Mr. Carr sponsored England's Royal Shakespeare Company in productions of ''Cyrano de Bergerac'' and ''Much Ado About Nothing'' at the Gershwin Theater on Broadway and the Kennedy Center in Washington. The productions earned a total of 10 Tony nominations, including another for Mr. Carr as producer.

As a manager, Mr. Carr guided the careers of personalities including Ann-Margret, Peter Sellers, Marvin Hamlisch, Tony Curtis, Dyan Cannon and Joan Rivers. He is also credited with discovering Mark Hamill, Michelle Pfeiffer and Steve Guttenberg.

At the time of his death, he was preparing ''The New Musical Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' for Broadway, and British and Australian stage productions of Ken Ludwig's Tony Award-winning comedy ''Lend Me a Tenor.''

No immediate family members survive.

Photo: Allan Carr (Associated Press)

Correction: July 2, 1999, Friday An obituary of the film and theater producer Allan Carr yesterday misstated the title of a 1977 film starring John Travolta, whom Mr. Carr selected for the 1978 film ''Grease.'' The 1977 film was ''Saturday Night Fever,'' not ''Saturday Night Live.''